We've had a chest freezer for around two years now—it's a great way to take advantage of grocery store sales, farmer market finds, and garden bounty. But once your freezer starts to fill it can be easy to forget exactly what you have in there which is why it's a good idea to keep a freezer inventory.

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Household weblog Mrs. Happy Homemaker offers their family experience using a freezer inventory; the prime benefit is that you don't have to dig through stacks of pizzas and roasts to figure out if you still have that bag of broccoli at the bottom. Instead print out and laminate this freezer inventory, attach it to the lid of your freezer, and make sure you add and subtract food as it enters and leaves the freezer. You can write on it with any wet-erase marker.

For my family, having a freezer inventory is a huge benefit when it comes to weekly meal planning. We end up with less wasted food due to freezer burn and it helps us know how much to buy of frequently-eaten foods when they go on sale.